RED BOAT TROUPES AND CANTONESE OPERA by LORETTA SIULING YEUNG (Under the Direction of Jean N. Kidula) ABSTRACT: The Cantonese opera, one of China’s major operas, was inscribed as a valuable world heritage to be preserved by the United Nations in 2009. Because Cantonese people have migrated to many continents, performances, practitioners, and audiences, listeners have expanded to beyond Guangzhou in China, and Hong Kong to diasporas. The Red Boat Troupes were influential in shaping contemporary Cantonese opera. They were performing troupes that used boats for transportation between towns and villages in the Pearl River Estuary from the late Qing dynasty until 1938. These boats were specially designed for opera troupes. The boats also served as sleeping quarters for performers, musicians, apprentices, stagehands, and sailors. Many Red Boats were destroyed during the Japanese invasion of China in 1938. Unfortunately, in just 70 years, no more Red boats seem to exist. This study situates the historical background of Cantonese Opera and Red Boat Troupes. Culture, function, life style, the art, performance practice, aesthetics, and music of Cantonese opera in the Red Boat society are examined. The thesis also looks into the social and economic understandings that brought about the demand for the Red Boat Troupe industry. Changes due to modernity, industrialization, metropolitan living, trade, colonialism, Westernization, and improved transportation affected the development of Cantonese opera. Feminist movement, cross-gender performance, economics, and class issues historically associated with the opera are examined and compared to recent activities in Hong Kong, and in one Cantonese diaspora, Vancouver of Canada. The findings from the research shed light on the genre with a hope of preserving the heritage and increasing the practice and consumption of Cantonese opera. KEYWORDS: Cantonese Opera, Red boat Troupes, Hong Kong Opera, RED BOAT TROUPES and CANTONESE OPERA by LORETTA SIULING YEUNG B.S., University of Alberta, 1974 B.A., Augusta State University, 2004 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2010 © 2010 Loretta Siuling Yeung All Rights Reserved RED BOAT TROUPES AND CANTONESE OPERA by LORETTA SIULING YEUNG Major Professor: Jean Kidula Committee: Adrian Childs David Schiller Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2010 DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my parents, Mr. Ling Hon Wai, and Mrs. Ling Lee Oi Ling. This thesis is also dedicated to my late grandmother Mrs. Ling Fung Suet Ching. For everyone in my family, I love you. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to Dr. Jean N. Kidula, my thesis advisor, whose help in the discipline of ethnomusicology has been insightful, knowledgeable, and encouraging. The time and effort that she has spent with my work have been insurmountable. I am also indebted to Dr. David Schiller and Dr. Adrian Childs, who took time to be on my thesis committee. Dr. Schiller has given me tremendous curriculum advice for the past years and Dr. Childs has provided me with theoretical knowledge in an exceptional organized fashion. The University of Georgia music department has provided a desirable environment for my study and the music department’s graduate officer Ms. Susan LeCroy has been very helpful to me for information, especially when I was abroad. I am grateful to Dr. Sau Y. Chan who taught me the music knowledge in Cantonese opera, introduced me to performances and publications for reference while I was in Hong Kong. His dedication to show knowledge of Cantonese opera is exemplary. I would also like to thank Ms. Manshan Cheung of the Chinese Opera Information Center at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for her tireless effort locating books and knowledge at my frequent requests. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………..….v List of Figures………………………………………………………………………..…..vii Preface, Romanization and Transcription………………………………………….……viii Chapter One Introduction…………………………………………………………….............1 Two The Rise of Red Boat Troupes and Cantonese Opera…………………..........15 Three The Red Boat Society……………………………………….……........….…24 Four The Plays…………………………………………………………….........…36 Five The Music………………………………………………………….........…...44 Six Costume, Venues, and Remnants of Red Boat Culture………….........….….53 Seven Hong Kong— Social Issues that Influence Cantonese Opera.….........…..….62 Eight China and Vancouver…………………………………………….........….....76 Nine Future of Cantonese Opera……………………………………….........….…87 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………...…93 Appendix A Synopsis………………………………………………………..…….…. 97 Appendix B A List of Interviewees………………………………………….…..…...104 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Map of China…….………….……….………………………………….....……4 Figure 2. Model of a red boat…….…………….…..……………………………….……25 Figure 3. The bow of an earth boat…..………..……………………………………..…..26 Figure 4. Inside of the cabin………………………………………………………….…..27 Figure 5. The rear part of the red boat…………………..…………………………….…28 Figure 6. Face painting, Mr. Hung Hoi ……………….....................................................56 Figure 7. Face painting, Mr. Hung Hoi ……………….....................................................56 Figure 8. Mr. Yuen Siu Fai………………………………………………………...……. 59 Figure 9. Ms. Tse Suet Sum……………………………………………………..………..71 Figure 10. Mr. Paris Wong with his students………………………...………....…..……73 Figure 11. Mr. Paris Wong at the Kunju and Cantonese opera cultural exchange…...…..73 Figure 12. Amateur singers in Vancouver…………...…………………………………...79 Figure 13. Mr. Chan in Vancouver……………………………..……….……….....…….80 Figure 14. Mr. Wong Toa…………………………………………………....……...……81 Figure 15. Mr. Liu Hon Wo……………………………………………………...……….89 Figure 16. Ms. Chan Sau Hing………………………………………………….….…….89 Figure 17. Operas of Two Worlds……………………………………………………..…91 vii Preface This study was approved by the Subjects Office of the Institutional Review Board on 2008-01-30. Project number: 2008-10398-0 Romanization and Transliteration In order to maintain consistency for scholars and musicologists of the English world, some terms in this thesis adopt the Hanyu Pinyin system with official Putonghua (the national language in China) pronunciations, which is used in other music literature studies in English. However, for the convenience of more direct tonal transcription, many names of performers, characters, play titles, places, terms in the Cantonese opera trades, and lyrics are romanized according to the Standard Cantonese Pinyin system developed by Yu Bingzhao in 1971. The IPA system of Wong Sek Ling is used as a guide in the Cantonese pronunciation system.1 The system of Jyutping, a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society in 1993 of Hong Kong (LSHK), is used for most transcriptions. The "j" used by this system is the "j" used by IPA, which is equivalent to the "y" used by English speakers. Most information obtained in this study is from the three large cities at the three points of the Pearl River Delta: Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Macau. Hong Kong was a British Colony from 1842 to 1997; Guangzhou was the earliest port opened for international trade in China; and Macau was a Portuguese colony from the 16th century to 1999. An older system for transcription, the Yale system, had been used in the area for quite some time. Some 1 Sek Ling Wong, Yuet yum wan leoi [An Anthology of Phonics in Yuet Yum] (Hong Kong: Zhong Wha Book Store, 2007). viii transcriptions retain the old Yale system because performers and places had already established their English names spelled in this manner. People’s name in Chinese is in the order of surname followed by the first name. In this thesis, American convention is used. In the footnotes, first names are followed by the surnames. And in the bibliography, surnames are followed by a comma, and then by the first names of the authors. In the interviews, the Chinese name of the author, Ling, is used. ix Chapter One Introduction I was awakened early by the motor boats along the Pearl River just beneath the balcony of my hotel room. It was a pleasant early summer day in 2003 at Saa Min, an esplanade surrounded by the waters of the Pearl. Across the river was a busy area of Guangzhou, where the Thirteen Company used to stand. This was a city where my parents had studied, worked and spent their youth. I left the hotel and took a morning walk on the wide street where the central portion, all along the road, was planted with trees, bushes and flowers. All the buildings were in the grand European style; it was where embassies of all representing nations stood, before 1949. Some music from a cassette player attracted my attention— it was Cantonese opera singing and reminded me of my childhood in Hong Kong. The cassette belonged to a middle- aged woman exercising in front of a building. The walk along a clean, quiet street surrounded by historic buildings, accompanied by the pleasant fragrance of flowers, was certainly wonderful. But most wonderful was the lingering music that I had not heard for many years. My stay in China was just for a few days. I went on to Hong Kong where I searched for books on Chinese and Cantonese music and opera. The most comprehensive one was written in simplified Chinese, the form that is commonly used in China today. I struggled to read the book with the help of a Simple-to-Traditional character conversion